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Marital Bliss – – –

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Jack’s Wednesday guest post is a day early – or more likely a week late – – –

Wendy reminds me often about our marriage vows. She has a much better memory than me so can remember them in much more detail. I can only remember that I’m supposed to keep her happy and comfortable.

Last week she reminded me of one that involves checking on our chickens and making sure that they have food and water. I hadn’t remembered that one.

I should explain that we currently have four chickens in a wire mesh pen at the far end of our backyard. To get to it you navigate a narrow flagstone path between two vegetable gardens and then across a grass area littered with fallen black walnuts strewn around. You know, the ones the size of baseballs.

So it’s a long walk across a bit of an obstacle course anyway, made more difficult when carrying a pan of water and a tub of mixed grains for the feathered darlings.

I set off gingerly and successfully arrived at the gate to the pen. It is wire mesh and held in place by two elastic cords with metal hooks on each end. I opened the gate and delivered the water and food, then exited and closed the gate, I fastened the bottom cord in place and then started to the top one. The hook slipped out of place, the cord sprung back and the metal hook hit me full in the face!

Having explained to the chickens that this was all normal and intentional (they were immediately concerned about the supply chain effects, you see) I retraced my steps down the narrow path and towards the end tripped over a raspberry cane lying across the flagstones in wait for me. Reaching out my hand to keep my balance I fell on my back but not before stubbing all my fingers on a concrete slab!

I wish now I had kept at least one copy of those marriage vows just for future reference and to be sure Wendy didn’t make the chicken feeding part up. See, I don’t think we had chickens when we first got married. I understand her insistence that taking care of the litter boxes is in the vows; we did have a pre-marriage cat. But the chickens? That would have been very prescient of her….

Oh – and another one seems to have been to get her large diet cokes with light ice – – –

A Word in your Ear – –

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Jack has been very remiss with Wednesday blog posts – but there have been many distractions –

I learned a lesson some years ago that has stayed with me over the years. I was a senior manager in a community college in Scotland and was going through a difficult time. This was due to the hidden actions of other colleagues, and I felt isolated and alone.

Two of my colleagues (both women) could sense I was troubled and invited me out a few times to restaurants or bars for a meal or a drink. I’m sure they did this together so there wouldn’t be any gossip although they would have been perfectly capable of dealing with that anyway.

The lesson it taught me is that whenever it seems that anyone is behaving in a manner you consider unprofessional or unnecessarily awkward, you need to remember that you don’t know what else is going on their life. Most people try to keep their work life and personal life apart but I suspect that is almost impossible these days, with so many people in upheaval from the recent storm.

Seeing the devastation affecting other areas, I got thinking about how sometimes it’s upfront and obvious how people are affected by events. In those times, maybe we give grace a little longer. I’ve tended to give people the benefit of the doubt anyway, but these days everyone can see what’s happening.

But not always – – –

Sometimes those battles are hidden, and in those situations a little friendship, even a kind word, goes a long way.

I’ve been described as an empathetic person and I think it all goes back to those two wise and observant women! Ever since then I’ve tried to give folk some slack. If we can all do the same during these stormy times, perhaps we can weather it a little better—together.